Fiber optic networks typically include interconnection closures at various splice locations throughout the fiber optic network. Typically, these interconnection closures include splice closures and patch closures. For example, splice closures commonly house the splices required to connect the optical fibers of one or more distribution cables to respective ones of the optical fibers of a fiber optic feeder cable. By housing the splices, a splice closure protects the spliced end portions of the optical fibers from environmental degradation, strain and other deterious forces, thereby increasing the reliability and quality of the splices.
As known to those skilled in the art, a variety of splice closures have been designed. For example, a typical butt-type splice closure includes a housing open at one end and a single end cap positioned within the open end of the housing through which each of the fiber optic cables extend. In addition, in-line splice closures include a housing open at both opposed ends and a pair of end caps positioned within the open ends of the housing such that fiber optic cables can enter the in-line splice closure from either end of the housing.
Regardless of the type, conventional splice closures generally include a number of splice trays that are disposed in a stacked arrangement within the housing. Each splice tray generally includes a series of splice holders for receiving the spliced end portions of a pair of optical fibers. In some instances, the splice trays are pivotally connected at one end to a mounting bracket which, in turn, is connected to an end cap. This pivotal connection permits the splice trays to be temporarily moved to a raised position in order to access an underlying splice tray so as to facilitate reconfiguration of the splicing connections. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,480 to Julian S. Mullaney, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,553 to Daniel F. Daems, et al. In other instances, the splice trays are not hinged, but are stacked in a tray stacker such that each tray is accessible.
While splice closures that include a number of stacked splice trays are widely utilized throughout conventional fiber optic networks, these conventional splice closures suffer from several deficiencies. By including multiple splice trays, for example, the number of parts required to construct the splice closure as well as the attendant costs of the parts and the labor to assemble the parts can be significant. In addition, structures having moving parts, such as a splice closure having hingedly connected splice trays, are generally more prone to reliability problems than similar structures which do not have moving parts.
In addition to a plurality of splice trays, conventional splice closures generally include a slack storage tray or basket in which slack lengths of the various optical fibers are stored generally in a coiled or looped configuration. These optical fibers can include both the optical fibers that are to be spliced within the splice closure and express optical fibers that extend unspliced through the splice closure. While a splice closure that contains slack lengths of the optical fibers facilitates subsequent reconfiguration and resplicing of the various optical fibers, slack lengths of the optical fibers stored within the slack storage tray often become tangled, thereby rendering it relatively difficult to identify and disentangle a particular optical fiber. As a result of the relatively poor fiber management provided by the slack storage trays of conventional splice closures, it is therefore generally time consuming to identify and access a specific one of optical fibers within a splice storage tray in order to reconfigure or resplice the optical fibers.
As known to those skilled in the art, fiber optic cables that include one or more ribbon fibers are being increasingly utilized, especially for fiber to the desk and other like applications. Conventional ribbon fibers include four, eight, twelve, sixteen or twenty-four optical fibers connected by a ribbon matrix. While conventional splice closures can be utilized to splice ribbon fibers as well as loose buffered optical fibers, conventional splice closures suffer from additional deficiencies when utilized to splice ribbon fibers. In this regard, the coiling of slack lengths of the ribbon fibers within the slack storage tray can quickly fill the slack storage tray. Like individual optical fibers, slack lengths of the ribbon fibers also generally become entangled within the slack storage tray such that it is relatively difficult to identify and extract a specific ribbon fiber, such as for future reconfiguration of the fiber optic network. In addition, fiber optic cables that include ribbon fibers oftentimes have large fiber counts, thereby requiring a large number of splice trays and, in turn, a disadvantageously large closure.